An exciting thriller from Spain. Joao (Sergi
López)
is a Portuguese
young man now living in Barcelona. He's a traveling
salesman of musical
cassettes and videos, who has a steady route servicing
the bars on the
road somewhere outside of Madrid. The weary Joao has a
short-styled
haircut,
side-burns, an earring, and says his job requires long
hours, lots of
driving,
and the pay is not that good. Joao meets a
well-dressed, nervous,
attractive,
middle-aged woman, Berta (Carmen Maura), in a roadside
restaurant, who
begs him to take her to Lisbon. She remains mysterious
about why she's
so desperate to get there, but says her car broke down
and she must get
there in a hurry.

At first Joao refuses, even after she offers money,
herself
and the
valuable necklace in her purse. But he relents when he
sees how
desperate
she is and that there are police in front of the
restaurant, as he's
alarmed
that he found a gun in her handbag and just wishes to
get her out of
that
tight spot. Joao doesn't realize that the police have
been called to
the
scene not because of Berta but for a car accident
nearby where a
married
couple and their daughter were killed.

Joao is afraid he's gotten into something he doesn't
understand,
so at a rest stop he calls the emergency number he
found in Berta's
handbag.
Soon her son Carlos arrives by motorbike from Madrid
and then her
daughter
Verónica appears with her grand-pa Aurelio and
the wealthy
families'
bodyguard Bruno. The family does not want Berta to go
to Lisbon, while
she's annoyed with them and insists they leave her
alone.

It turns out that the family killed in the car crash
was
known to
Berta. The head of the family, Avaro, is the
Portuguese business
partner
of her corrupt husband, José Luis (Federico
Luppi). Berta claims
it was not an accident but Avaro was killed by her
husband. It
was
over a loan José Luis received from Avaro for a
supposedly
lucrative
land deal that was contingent on politicians being
bribed to pass
certain
zoning ordinances, but the deal went sour and Avaro
was calling for his
loan to be paid back even though José Luis
couldn't raise that
kind
of money. Avaro threatens to expose his partner to the
authorities
unless
he gets paid. Berta has with her a cassette Avaro made
of being
tortured
not to squeal, and she also has a key to deliver to
Avaro's friend in
Lisbon
in case anything happens to him.

The lonely road, the glare from the harsh sunlight,
the
fear Berta
has for her ruthless husband, all lend an eerie
atmosphere as the story
builds to its surprising conclusion. Berta is a woman
trapped in a bad
marriage and burdened with a family of strangers.
Berta's only hope is
for the bewildered Joao to rescue her from her evil
husband. Joao is
discontent
with his marriage, his job, being Portuguese, and he
thinks that all
that
matters is having money. But when bribed by the family
to leave Berta,
he refuses. Things become more complicated when
José Luis shows
up.

Carmen Maura is one of Spain's leading actresses and
gives
a stunning
performance as the lady-in-peril. Sergi López
is in a noirish
character
role, of the poor sap sucked into a drama that's
beyond his imaginings.
Sergi does a nice job of showing that despite his
bewilderment his
intentions
are to do what's right. Federico Luppi is a
distinguished veteran
actor,
whose white mane of hair and chiselled aristocratic
good looks always
give
him a certain screen charisma. Federico makes his
villain role a
layered
one. What he will do to stop Berta becomes the focal
point of this
tense
story.

Director Antonio Hernández wrote the novel
the film
was based
on, and co-scripted the screenplay with Enrique
Brasó.
Cinematographer
Aitor Mantxola does wonders with all the daylight
outdoor shots, as his
camera gives the suspense story an intriguing look.
Though the acting
is
crisp, the storytelling is spellbinding, and the
cinematic production
values
are really fine, I felt stranded on the road by the
film's conclusion.
The chilling film was on shaky psychological ground,
as it ran out of
road
to give the story more depth.